Police Seek Public’s Help In Finding Missing South Jersey Girl

CLAYTON, N.J. (CBS) — New Jersey State Police are asking for the public’s help in their search for a missing 12-year-old girl.

Authorities say Autumn Pasquale left her father’s home in Clayton, New Jersey on a white, BMX Odyssey bike around 1:30 Saturday afternoon, and has not been seen since.

“When you wake up in the morning and your daughter’s still not home, it’s time to panic,” said Autumn’s mother Jenn Cornwall. She and Tony Pasquale are praying for the safe return of their daughter.

“I don’t know who she was supposed to meet up with,” Cornwall said. “She just left and said she was meeting a friend.”

She communicated with her mom by phone about 15 minutes later.

“I was the last one to text her,” her mom said. She said they were briefly texting back and forth.

(Family photos provided)

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Family, friends and neighbors in the community have been searching for Pasquale since her father reported her missing around 9:30 Saturday night.

“We’ve looked every place she could possibly be,” said friend Dawn Foglein.

Dawn and others handed out and hung up posters, and walked Scotland Run Park where there was an unconfirmed sighting of Pasquale on Saturday afternoon.

Clayton Police were joined by the Gloucester County Child Abduction Response Team of K-9 units and officers and firefighters from surrounding towns who went back to Scotland Run. A New Jersey State Police helicopter also searched the area.

The FBI is also involved in the search.

“There are all wooden lots out there. It can be scary. That’s what I’m afraid of,” her father said. Mr. Pasquale said she would not have left on her own.

“The police expressed runaway,” he said. “I totally disagree with that, because it’s not her at all. She’s responsible, respectful. She’s a good girl.”

Pasquale is 5’2” and weighs 120 pounds. She has long, wavy blonde hair with pink highlights, which is usually pulled back in a pony tail. She was last seen wearing navy blue sweatpants over navy blue shorts, a yellow tee-shirt with Clayton Soccer on the front, bright blue high-top sneakers and a light grey or silver backpack with the word “reckless” on the back.